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ニート彗星(Comet NEAT)に異変が起こらないことは1月には判明していた。
Comet NEAT started brightening very rapidly late last year, far outpacing even the most optimistic brightness forecasts. Were it to continue brightening in the same manner as it approached the Sun, the comet would have likely evolved into an amazingly brilliant object, perhaps briefly becoming visible even in broad daylight, a feat commonly achieved only by the Sun, the Moon and the planet Venus (for experienced skywatchers)
But by early January the level of brightening slowed considerably.
Suggestions were then put forward that comet NEAT might actually start to fizzle out as it crossed the Earth's orbit on its inbound approach to the Sun; perhaps its brightening would stop completely, or it might even start getting dimmer. Were it just a small comet, NEAT would certainly become well cooked at its close approach to the Sun and, in addition, might be subjected to great disruptive forces that could break it up or even destroy it totally.
But in mid January, a new orbit calculated for NEAT demonstrated that it is moving around the Sun in a highly elliptical orbit, taking roughly 37,000 years to make one complete revolution around the Sun.
That means the comet likely has been through the inner solar system at least once before probably more than once suggesting that it has survived previous close brushes with the Sun.
分裂とか、バラバラになるとか言われたが、1月中旬にはそれが否定されていたのだ。
それでも騒いでいたのは、このニュースを知らなかっただけだった。もちろん、天文ファンは知っていたから騒ぐようなことはなかった。